As streaming music services become more popular, WiFi networks are becoming the preferred way to listen to music. It's easier than ever to connect your devices over WiFi and listen to the most recent pop hits in high quality without worrying about data tariffs or running out of gigabytes. If you're still playing music through your phone or Bluetooth, there are a few reasons you should consider using WiFi instead.
- Higher Quality With WiFi Audio
- Longer Streaming Distance
- Save Your Phone's Storage And Data Plan
- Multiple Audio Source Accessible
- Connect Whole House Audio
- Make Your Life Easier
Higher Quality With WiFi Audio
Nowadays, there are 2 ways of wireless audio streaming: WiFi and Bluetooth. No need to doubt audio quality on WiFi is superior to Bluetooth. You can experience distortion-free, clearer music thanks to the technology.
These two wireless technologies differ from one another in how they compress files. The majority of WiFi-transmitted files are already compressed. In this manner, the files won't require additional compression that might degrade their quality.
The majority of digital files are compressed. Even if you only access the sites with the highest audio quality, Bluetooth will still compress the data to a point where the sound quality is compromised. Even if the speakers and audio quality are excellent, compression still impacts everything.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak claims Bluetooth produces a balanced sound, even for high-quality audio. Steve said there are other ways to transfer audio besides Bluetooth. Therefore he wouldn't utilize that one. Similar views were expressed by Sound United's Michael Greco, who claimed that anyone could tell the difference between WiFi and Bluetooth speakers' audio quality.
Longer Streaming Distance
In this case, WiFi beats Bluetooth. The data transfer functions as long as the streaming devices are linked to the home network. The connectivity is often ensured throughout the entire living space.
It doesn't matter if the loudspeaker and the playback device are in different rooms. In terms of range, Bluetooth hits its limits more quickly. The standard can send signals through barriers as well. A reliable audio channel can only travel a distance of 10 meters, though.
Save Your Phone's Storage And Data Plan
The streaming quality options in the program determine how much data your music streaming services consume. Bitrates are a unit of measurement for the speed at which data is processed or supplied and utilized to establish the quality settings. The quality of the song is improved by increasing the bitrate.
For instance, the maximum bitrate for Apple Music is 256 Kbps, while the maximum bitrate for Spotify Premium is 320 Kbps. You can change the quality setting on most music streaming platforms based on your subscription type and how you're listening to the music (e.g. WiFi or mobile network).
320 Kbps consumes 115.2 MB of bandwidth per hour or 2.40 MB of audio per minute. Therefore, 8 hours of working while listening to music will consume about 1 GB of data.
And let's take a look at the mobile plan. Here are the data usage estimates for various plans based on the previously mentioned data.
You may stream up to:
- 117 hours of low-quality content on a 5 GB mobile data plan.
- 70 hours of music of average quality
- 42,5 hours of high-quality audio
You could stream up to:
- 234 hours of low quality content with a 10 GB mobile data plan.
- 140 hours of music of average quality
- 85 hours of high-quality audio
Unless your smartphone plan offers unlimited mobile data or phone storage, you'll need to find a solution to solve the music streaming data usage limits. Then, WiFi streaming may be a perfect solution for the issue.
WiFi signals typically have a higher level of robustness so that you won't experience signal loss or low-quality bitrates, in addition to the data use savings you'll experience. Your bandwidth may still be optimized by internet service providers, but not to the same level as by your wireless carrier.
By WiFi, you can stream directly from the online playlist. You don't need to download songs on your smart devices and get your favorite songs on each intelligent device. Save a lot of space from your smartphone, tablet, laptop etc.
Multiple Audio Source Accessible
Another great point of WiFi audio is WiFi gives you access to multiple audio sources instead of just your phone. The acceptable audio sources may vary depending on your chosen wireless streaming devices. Let's pick one of the more comprehensive products currently on the market as an example: Arylic S50 Pro+ Wireless Stereo Preamplifier.
Arylic S50 Pro+ has tremendous wireless capability, allowing you to stream music over WiFi, Apple Airplay, Spotify Connect, DLNA, UPnP and Bluetooth(aptX HD). As you can see, the versatile wireless streaming features already could accept almost all audio sources that work by the wi fi network. Like Streaming from online music (Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube, Tidal, Deezer etc.) Online Radio (TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Internet Radio etc.) NAS and more.
We saw the multiple interfaces on the back, which accept the standard stereos(USB stick, Analog Audio, Digital Audio etc.) to transmit signals by WiFi when doing multi-room streaming.
Connect Whole House Audio
Based on the information above, now you can play multiple audio sources through WiFi. But that's not all, and WiFi can connect your whole house audio, which gives you a different listening experience than ever.
Simply put, you might have speakers in two or more rooms that receive sound from a single music source. Using WiFi audio, you can play various types of music or the same music in each room. Typically, this is referred to as a "Multiroom system."
Combining the above points, imagine you and your family enjoying music at home. Play a vinyl classic for your dad in his room, stream TV audio in the living room and play a story station in your kid's room. The whole family enjoys their favorite music anytime, anywhere by WiFi audio (multiroom system)
Make Your Life Easier
In 2022, WiFi audio streaming is a hot future trend in which every music lover may have one streaming sound system at home. Wireless speakers not only give your listening experience to another level, but they also put effort into your aesthetics. Which invisible the mess wires for your home stereo speaker system.
Thanks to the rapid development of WiFi audio, it makes our life easier. Usually, WiFi Audio systems may come with their App, which allows you to play music wherever you want in your house. So every member in your house can quickly start their music time with a smartphone, tablet or PC.
In the past, I may need to move closer to the Bluetooth speaker and connect Bluetooth. Whenever I want to play with different people's smart devices, I need to connect the Bluetooth again. Now WiFi audio only needs to be set up once, and I can control and switch in seconds anytime, anywhere in my house.
If you'd like to wait and see what transpires or are unsure about where to begin. I may recommend the Arylic S10 Music streamer for your first WiFi Audio system. Which almost has all the wireless functionality mentioned above and is less expensive.
Hope you enjoy my articles and find your favorite WiFi audio devices! If you've ever tried to listen to music using WiFi, please let me know in the comments below!
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Author / Wade Maltz I am Wade Maltz, an Audio Engineer and Musician with nearly 20 years of experience in the field. I specialize in High-End Audio, and I love tinkering with speakers, amps, and anything related to making music sound great. I am always looking to help others learn more about sound and how they can improve their own listening experience. |
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